I am new to LoRaWAN and I am doing extensive research on LoRaWAN private networks to have an understanding of it before attempting anything. This means I still have no practical experience with deploying/setting up a network.
I was wondering whether it was possible to have the gateways communicate together. Supposing that only one gateway has internet access and that the other gateways are able to communicate without the need for internet. Is it possible to have all the gateways forward the packets they receive to a central gateway that handles communication with the network server?
Even if you are using repeaters, the network topology is more or less a “hub”, but that should be something coming up on your extensive research.
Ot the Lora level you might be able to implement your own mesh-network, but you’ll have to build your own “network protocol” on top of Lora. If you are going with the most used protocol on top of Lora → LoraWAN then much of the work is done/specified for you, but i havent seen anything on the specs for node to node communication or relays.
As you are not specifying how the gateways “communicate” with each other I assumed you are implying re-using LoraWAN for that. If the gateways are connected over LAN or WiFi with each other and one of them has an “internet connection” you are in the realm of IP packet routing and not LoraWAN.
A quick search on youtube could speed up your “extensive research”
Not sure why you felt the need to be condescending about it… If you think his question is dumb, or beneath you, just… Don’t answer at all. It’s not that hard.
Fair enough. The tone was snarky and condescending. @defy I apologize for that. If it’s a university assignment you can probably get by modifying the LoRa c code or look for one of the samples how others have done mesh on top of LoRa. With lorawan you are a bit hands tied. It’s a spec after all.
For the record, I appreciated the link to the video. While I’ve watched a few, I had not seen that one.
While I’m not new to networking or the differing layers of communication by any means, I am fairly new to LoRa and LoRaWAN, so reminders of the protocol vs transport are useful.
(And kudos for the apology - that shows a lot of intellectual maturity. I unfortunately find myself having to go back and tone down comments I make semi-regularly. Not sure if it is COVID brain, or if I’m just getting grumpier in my old age. Not something I’m proud of either way.)
